Surgical fastener assemblies for holding fractured bone segments in place and in particular a femur have heretofore been devised employing various adjustment features. In general, such fastener devices have employed a guide sleeve embedded in one bone segment such as the upper segment of a femur in order to non-rotatably receive and adjustably hold one end of an axially elongated shaft or nail which extends through both fractured bone segments, with the end of the shaft opposite the guide sleeve being provided with structure for securing the shaft to the bone segment. Because of absorption occurring during the bone healing process, it has been necessary to accommodate a certain amount of telescoping movement between the shaft and the guide sleeve, under certain circumstances. On the other hand, it is sometimes desirable in the setting of fractured bone segments that the shaft be axially fixed relative to the guide sleeve requiring, therefore, another type of fastener assembly.
Various forms of surgical bone fastener assemblies are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 662,748; 1,033,187; 2,612,159; 2,621,653; 2,628,614; 2,672,861; 2,682,265; 2,702,543; 2,801,631; 2,834,342; 3,029,811 and 3,107,666.